Disbanding the UBP won't change anything

Anyone who believes the the re-branding, re-structuring or breakup of the UBP will have any impact on local politics is dreaming.

If the UBP continues to exist in any form, with any name, the PLP will still be able to brand it as the party of white Bermuda.

And if the UBP breaks up and is replaced by another party, the UBP's former supporters are likely to simply transfer their allegiance to that new entity, enabling the PLP to keep demonising it in the same way.

It's just like the suggestion that the UBP would be more appealing to blacks with a black leader. It wouldn't. Wayne Furbert's stint in charge proved that. A black leader would simply be portrayed as a puppet of the white men who are supposedly running things behind the scenes.

I see only three ways in which race can be taken out of politics, and hence Bermuda can obtain a functional democracy.

The first is if the PLP voluntarily stops the use of racially divisive language. That doesn't mean that they have to stop talking about race. It just means that they have to stop talking about it in such an offensive, provocative manner. I don't see that happening any time soon, however, and certainly not while the party remains under the leadership of Ewart Brown.

The second is if the electorate reject the PLP's use of that language. Unfortunately, Tuesday's election suggested quite the opposite.

The final way is if both parties were to break up, and two (or more) new political entities were to form from the pieces. However, with a fresh election win under the PLP's belt, that seems like the most unlikely scenario of all.